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Derren Brown: Only Human

The Playhouse, Edinburgh

Four stars

 

As gossipy Magic Circle members might tell you, Derren Brown’s feats of mental skulduggery he bamboozles his fan base with aren’t anything new. Brown himself admits in the second half of his latest theatrical extravaganza that the hardest thing for him to do during his two and a half hour performance is to keep an eye on a deck of cards to see which way one lands. The fact that he tells us this via subtitles on a screen that covers the Playhouse stage’s entire back wall while those cards are shuffled speaks volumes about Brown’s exemplary shtick. And while those self same Magic Circle members may be correct in their professional observations, if they ever let slip how Brown’s tricks actually worked, chances are such a breach of protocol would see us all have to do a disappearing act. 

 

Things begin quietly enough with pre show phone footage testimonies from a stream of satisfied but bewildered customers about how Brown appears to have prophesised their futures. What follows in a multi faceted show scripted by Brown with Andrew O’Connor and Stephen Long is a series of inter-linked routines that sees Brown usher in the gentlest form of audience interaction that becomes a revelation, particularly to those taking part.

 

Without giving the game away, everyone goes all too willingly, putting their faith in Brown’s low-key confidence and ability to control an audience. The latter is on a par with the time the late Andy Kaufman took a sold out Carnegie Hall crowd out for milk and cookies. Brown may not go quite that far in terms of moving people around, but, under the direction of Andrew O’Connor, the show mixes up pop psychology with the prophecies of Nostradamus to become something infinitely more profound.

 

Cloaked in the moody trappings of Simon Higlett’s set and Simon Wainwright’s video, with Charlie Morgan Jones’ lighting and Beth Duke’s sound design providing dramatic bricks and mortar, much of the show’s power comes from an audience willing to leave themselves vulnerable to the power of suggestion. This is never exploitative, but is overseen by Brown with a genuine sense of care that sits alongside his seasoned showmanship. What happens next beyond the theatre’s four walls is really up to the audience. Whatever it is, as with the Magic Circle code of honour, that would be telling.


The Herald, June 24th 2026

 

ends

 

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